C^j^^L \t%*~ 







By tran 8 f 9r 
2 1906 








Forbes Co., Boston. 



HER MAJESTY QUEEN EIEIUOKAEANL 




A Trip to Hawaii. 



Forbes Co., Bostofi. 



H.R.H. PRINCESS K AIULANI — IIkir Presumptive. 



H + {Trip + to •?• ftawaii : 



BY 



CHARLES WARREN STODDARD. 
• i 



WITH 



DESCRIPTIVE INTRODUCTION 



flew JEDitfon. 



ISSUED BY 

PASSE^GE^ DEPA^T^E^T 

OCEANIC STEAMSHIP CO. 

san FK^NCisco. 




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I 

< 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING PAGE. 

Avenue of Royal Palms — Honolulu, 29 

Cocoanut Island — Hilo, 40 

Diamond Head, 3 

Hanapepa Falls, 20 

Hilo Beach, 25 

Honolii Gulch, 37 

Hula Girls, 32 

Kapiolani — Queen Dowager, v 

H. R. H. Princess Kaiulani — Heir Presumptive, . .Frontispiece. 

kalakaua late klng of the hawaiian islands. 

Her Majesty Queen Liliokalani, 

Lauhala and Cocoanut Grove. 48 

Lava Flow — Near Hilo, 45 

Map of Hawaiian Islands, iv 

Oceanic S. S. Co's S. S. Mariposa -v4t- 

Wailua Falls — Kauai, xii 



A TRIP TO HAWAII 



INTRODUCTORY. 

— m^m— - 

A trip to the Hawaiian Islands from San Francisco in one of 
the Oceanic Company's United States and Royal Mail steamships, 
is perhaps, the most enjoyable in the whole possible range of sea 
excursions. The distance, 2100 miles, is invariably covered by 
these superb vessels in seven days. A three thousand ton steam- 
ship, fitted with every modern convenience, and capable of run- 
ning sixteen knots an hour, sails twice a month from the Oceanic 
Company's Wharf, foot of Folsom street, San Francisco, for Hono- 
lulu, and returns at similar stated intervals, thus giving practically 
a fortnightly steamer service between the Pacific Coast and the 
Hawaiian Islands. 

In addition to the local service, the Australian Mail steamer 
sails every fourth week from the Oceanic Company's wharf 
for Auckland and Sydney, calling at Honolulu en route. This 
sailing every month combined with the local boat, affords 
tourists and business men two opportunities of visiting the 
Hawaiian Islands every four weeks. The Australian Mail boat 
also calls at Honolulu on its return from the Colonies, so that 
the facilities for getting back from the Hawaiian Islands equal 
those for visiting them. 

The departure of the Australian Mail steamship is regulated by 
the arrival at San Francisco of the English Mail for the southern 



vi A TRIP TO HAWAII. 

British Colonies, but the most unvarying punctuality in sailing and 
arrival is observed with the local boats. The Hawaiian mail is put 
on board a few minutes before sailing hour — at twelve noon in 
winter, and two o'clock p. m. in summer, as the season may be, 
and prompt upon the stroke of the hour, the lines are cast off, 
the gang-plank is withdrawn, and the noble ship glides into the 
stream to begin her voyage. 

The sailing of the Honolulu steamer is always an event of 
interest to scores of people, who crowd the ship until the last 
moment, and afterward line the wharf to catch a parting glimpse 
of their friends on board. The arrival of each Hawaiian steamer 
also draws an interested and apparently anxious crowd of people 
to the Oceanic Company's wharf. 

First class excursion tickets to Honolulu and return, good for 
three months, are issued by the Oceanic Company at reduced 
rates. Through passengers, to and from Australia, have the 
option of staying over at Honolulu. Those coming from the 
Colonies may continue their voyage to San Francisco in one of 
the local boats without waiting for the next through steamer. 
This privilege gives an interval of nine days during which the 
famous volcano of Kilauea, on the island of Hawaii, may be 
visited, together with all points of interest in and adjacent to 
Honolulu. In like manner, a through passenger to the Austral- 
asian Colonies may take one of the local boats from San Fran- 
cisco, and having spent twelve most enjoyable days on the Islands, 
can embark on the Australian Mail boat at Honolulu, and resume 
his voyage to the antipodes. 

The tourist, who for health or pleasure, comes so far West as 
San Francisco, and omits a visit to the Hawaiian Islands, denies 
himself a rare enjoyment. He has crossed the American Continent 
by rail, and subjected himself to the inevitable weariness of an 



INTRODUCTORY. vii 

overland trip. True, he is repaid by the wonders of the West, but 
if he turn his back on the wonders of the Tropics, so near and so 
accessible, he is not a thorough traveler. Granting him the wis- 
dom of an experienced sight-seer, he secures passage to Honolulu, 
and continues his journey by the Oceanic Company's line to "The 
Paradise of the Pacific. " Once on board he is installed in a roomy 
cabin, fitted with electric light and bell, and furnished with all the 
conveniences of a room in a first-class hotel. In an hour from the 
start, the noble ship has passed through the Golden Gate, and the 
voyager is on the blue Pacific, speeding towards Honolulu. 

The voyage is pleasure sailing from beginning to end, day after 
day bringing fresh delights. Arrived at Honolulu, there lies before 
the tourist a most interesting and delightful study. He is aston- 
ished at the grandeur and luxuriance of the vegetation. The mar- 
velous and ever-changing color of the opaline sea fills him with 
pleasure and wonder; the soft and fragrant air, the refreshing 
showers which keep the landscape perpetually green, and the 
abundant streams of limpid water, thrill him with the realization 
that he is at last in fairy-land. 

FROM PUNCHBOWL. 

"Beyond the ocean's rim the sun dips low, 

A scarlet flame climbs up the western sky ; 
The mountain peaks are tipped with roseate glow, 

The golden mists droop over Waianae, 

And cool grey shadows in the valleys lie, 
Where laughing waters through deep jungles flow, 
And swift-winged birds go flitting to and fro. 

The shadows lengthen as the light grows dim, 
Delicious odors fill the passing breeze ; , 

In colors filched from the rainbow's rim, 
Below our feet a wilderness of trees, 

Hides the fair city. Sounding faint and far, 

The muffled music on the coral bar, 
The loud-voiced chant of ever restless seas. 

— Charles If. /Swart." 



viii A TRIP TO HAWAII. 

There are so many strange and beautiful things to be seen in 
the Hawaiian Islands, that it is really difficult to tell the tourist 
where to begin. Honolulu itself is a bower of beauty, and is. 
moreover, a place of great historic interest. The ascent of Punch- 
bowl, which overlooks the City, has been rendered easy by the 
public spirit of the Hawaiian Government, which has built a fine 
carriage drive to the summit, whence a superb view of the City and 
harbor, Diamond Head, Pearl River, and the Waianae range is 
obtained. a 

A very complete system of street railroads renders travel through 
the principal thoroughfares of the City and suburbs cheap and ex- 
peditious, but most visitors will prefer to view the City leisurely, 
and enjoy the wealth of foliage and bloom on every side as they 
stroll along the streets protected from the sun by overshadowing 
branches. 

The tourist, on landing, usually makes his way to the Royal 
Hawaiian Hotel, a large and commodious building, erected by the 
Hawaiian Government at heavy expense for the special accom- 
modation of visitors to the Islands. It has been leased by the 
Government, and is managed as a first-class hostelry on the 
American plan. It stands in the center of extensive grounds, 
planted with shade and flowering trees, shrubs and flowers. The 
rooms are spacious and airy, and the hotel is well provided with 
baths. An artesian well in the grounds furnishes an unfailing 
supply of pure water. 

The main building is of concrete, two stories high, surrounded 
by wide verandas, where the guests assemble every evening to 
enjoy the cool breeze after the heat of the day, or perhaps listen 
to the music of the Royal Hawaiian band, for whose convenience 
a permanent stand has been erected in the Hotel grounds. There 
are several cottages on the grounds for the accommodation of 



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L \ ' TR O D UCTOR Y. i x 

families or guests who prefer privacy. The Hawaiian Band con- 
certs at the hotel are most enjoyable, and attract large audiences 
who crowd the grounds as well - as the verandas and corridors of 
the main building. From the hotel tower the eye takes in a wide 
sweep of valley and plain, sea and mountain, the whole presenting 
a picture unrivaled for its richness, variety, and warmth of 
coloring. 

There are several well-conducted boarding houses in Honolulu, 
and those who wish to enjoy the perfection of sea bathing can be 
accommodated at Waikiki, where there is also a first-class sea- 
side hotel. 

Mention has been made of the Royal Hawaiian Hand. It was 
established by the Hon. J. O. Dominis, the late Prince Consort, 
twenty years ago, and consists of forty pieces. This band, com- 
posed wholly of Hawaiians, has been brought to the highest de- 
gree of musical skill by Mr. H. Herger, who was sent out 
specially for this duty by the Prussian Government in 1872, at the 
request of the late King Kalakaua. Weather permitting, weekly 
concerts are given by this band at Emma Square, in the City, and 
Thomas Square, in the suburbs. The band also plays at the 
Palace functions and occasionally at the Hawaiian Hotel. 

The chief places of interest in the City of Honolulu are the 
Palace and Government Buildings. With proper introduction to 
the Queen's Chamberlain, access may be had to the Palace, a 
handsome modern residence, standing in extensive pleasure 
grounds. The Government Buildings are opposite the Royal 
Palace, fronting on Palace Square and King street. This is a con- 
crete structure, of considerable architectural merit, and contains the 
various departmental offices, and the Supreme Court and Judicial 
Chambers. The Legislature of the Kingdom meets in the main 
hall of the building, where the sessions of the Supreme Court are 



x A TRIP TO HAWAII. 

also held. In the well-kept grounds of the Government buildings, 
stands a bronze statue of Ka.mehameha the Great, in feather 
helmet and robes of State. The likeness to the founder of the 
Hawaiian monarchy is said to be perfect. 

When Kamehameha completed his conquests, he fixed the seat 
of his Government at Honolulu, where he discovered a channel 
through the reef into the only available harbor of the group. As 
this intelligent sovereign was anxious to promote trade with the 
outside world, he encouraged shipping to visit the Islands, and in 
the early days, before the harbor had been surveyed, he went out 
with his double canoe, manned by eighty to one hundred men, and 
towed visiting ships inside the reef. Thus the first pilot and harbor 
master at Honolulu was also the greatest chieftain and most re- 
markable man of the Hawaiian race. 

Kawhaiahoa Church, one of the old landmarks of Honolulu, is 
in this vicinity. It is built of coral, the material and labor being 
furnished by the natives soon after their chiefs had renounced idol- 
atry, and is an enduring evidence of the influence of the early 
Christian missionaries. In the Kawhaiahoa church-yard stands the 
tomb of King Lunalilo, the last of the Kamehamehas, although he 
did not assume that name. 

The Hawaiian Opera House, a commodious building capable of 
seating seven hundred people, fronts on Palace square, close to 
the Government buildings. 

A short walk from Palace square will bring the visitor to the 
Queen's Hospital, built in i860, in honor of Queen Emma, by her 
Royal Consort the Fourth Kamehameha, who personally solicited 
subscriptions for this charity. The grounds surrounding the Queen's 
Hospital are planted with palms, flowering shrubs and shade trees. 
The Avenue of Palms, leading up to the main entrance, will well 
repay a visit. 



INTRODUCTORY. xi 

East of the City, close to the foot hills, and not very far from 
each other, are Lunalilo Home and Oahu College. The former is 
surrounded by extensive grounds. It was founded by King Luna- 
lilo, as a home for aged and destitute Hawaiians. Oahu College is 
also well endowed with lands, and has earned a wide reputation as 
an educational institution. It is of missionary foundation. 

On the west side, a considerable distance from the City, are the 
Kamehameha schools, founded under the will of Mrs. Bernice 
Pauahi Bishop, heiress of the late Princess Ruth, sister of Kame- 
hameha the Fifth. They are richly endowed, and consist of pre- 
paratory and finishing schools. Practical instruction in useful 
trades is given to Hawaiian boys and girls, in addition to the regu- 
lar school course. And here it may be said that the public schools 
of Honolulu are numerous, well equipped for educational work, 
and are in charge of a most efficient and zealous body of trained 
teachers. These remarks apply generally to the public schools of 
the Kingdom. 

The Insane Asylum and Oahu Prison are on the west side, and 
may be visited on obtaining permission from the proper authority. 

The fish market, also the fish ponds in the vicinity of Oahu 
prison deserve mention. In ancient times many of the shallow 
places around the coast within the reef barrier were utilized as fish 
preserves, vast coral enclosures being made by the common people 
for their chiefs or aliis. Many of these fish ponds were abandoned 
when the lands were divided by Kamehameha the Third, and com- 
pulsory labor ceased to be available for the aliis. 

In the City proper are the Public Library and Reading Room, 
the Young Men's Christian Association building, containing lecture 
hall, class rooms and library; also, Odd Fellows' Hall, General 
Post Office, Custom House, Police buildings and court, Seamen's 
home, fire stations, telephone offices, etc. 



xii A TRIP TO HAWAII. 

The churches are numerous and well sustained. The English 
Episcopal Church has established a missionary see at Honolulu, and 
the Catholic Church has established the bishopric of Olba, also for 
missionary work. Social and benevolent organizations are also 
numerous and well supported. 

Honolulu is lighted by electricity. It has an efficient water 
service and fire department. No city in the world is so well or so 
cheaply supplied by telephone companies as Honolulu, and no 
other community makes such general use of the telephone. 

The population is composed of native Hawaiians, Americans 
and other persons of European descent, Portuguese chiefly from 
the Atlantic islands, Chinese and Japanese. This mixed community 
is orderly and industrious as a rule, and serious crimes are in- 
frequent. The law is strictly enforced. 

The conservation of public health is entrusted to a Board of 
Health, which has large powers, and enjoys public confidence. The 
Hawaiian Legislature appropriates ten per cent of the gross revenue 
of the Kingdom for medical and sanitary purposes. The Govern- 
ment maintains a large staff of qualified physicians throughout the 
Islands, whose duty it is to give medical advice and attendance to 
native Hawaiians free. Medicine is also supplied gratuitously. 
The various sugar plantations are required to provide adequate 
medical and surgical attendance for their laborers, irrespective of 
race. 

There are many charming drives in and around Honolulu, but 
those to the beach at Waikiki (embracing Kapiolani Park), and to 
the famous Pali, or precipice, over which the all-conquering Kame- 
hameha hurled the vanquished hosts of Oahu, are never overlooked 
by tourists. Each one is perfect in its way. There is a well made 
road from the City to the Pali, six miles distant. It leads up 
Nuuanu valley by a gradual ascent to the great cleft in the 




A Trip to Hawaii 



Forbes Co., Boston. 



WAILUA FALLS — Kauai. 



INTRO D UCTOR Y. xiii 

mountain, ending in an abrupt precipice 1200 feet above sea level. 
For a considerable distance the road is lined with handsome villas, 
set in the most beautiful of tropical surroundings. Visitors who are 
fond of botanizing may gratify their tastes to their hearts' content 
in any of the valleys between Honolulu and Diamond Head, and 
yet be within easy reach of the Hotel. 

An excursion of nine miles by railroad to Pearl Harbor is one 
of the attractions of a visit to Honolulu. A new marine resort is 
springing up at Pearl Harbor since the railroad was built. The 
scenery is pleasing on this trip, and a glimpse at rice fields, banana 
plantations and cane fields is obtained. 

As the Volcano is the objective point with most visitors to the 
Hawaiian Islands, care is taken by local organizations to provide 
proper facilities for reaching and exploring that miracle of nature, 
the volcano of Kilauea. The Volcano House Company has this 
business in charge, and provides for sea and land transportation by 
two routes; also, hotel and guides. A new and commodious Hotel 
has been built at the Volcano, and visitors may benefit by the 
health-giving properties of its famous sulphur baths. The scenery 
by either route presents a series of charming and often impressive 
tropical views. 

It is needless to attempt a description of the weird ghastliness 
of the great crater of Kilauea, or the active lake, Halemaumau, — 
"House of Everlasting Fire" — which occupies its southern end. 
This lake changes in appearance so frequently that no single descrip 
tion would fit. It is one of the most sublime and awe-inspiring sights 
in the world, and must be seen to be understood or appreciated. 
Nor is it necessary in this place to repeat the legends of Hawaiian 
mythology about the Goddess Pele, whose throne is supposed to be 
in the midst of this seething, spouting lake of liquid earth. These 
will be told by the guides under conditions which heighten their 



xiv A TRIP TO HAWAII. 

effect, and account for the credulity of the ancient Hawaiian s. 
Visitors to the Volcano usually secure specimens of Pele's hair and 
other kinds of lava. 

There are many places worth visiting on the Hawaiian Islands as 
well as the Volcano of Kilauea. In some respects a visit to the 
vast extinct crater of Haleakala — "House of the Sun" — is quite as 
interesting as a visit to Halemaumau. It presents the evidence of 
far more stupendous activity than Kilauea ever could show. The 
crater is 2,000 feet deep, with a circumference of about twenty 
miles and a diameter of seven and a half miles. Two immense 
gaps on the east and north side show where the molten lava, in a 
stream seven miles wide, poured out of this great crater, draining 
it of its molten contents. Standing above the clouds in the early 
morning, on the edge of this huge pit, one sees vast masses of clouds 
rushing into the crater through the clefts already spoken of, filling 
with fleecy billows its sixteen square miles of space; then the sun 
appears, and the clouds are expelled as they came, leaving his 
house or palace flooded with his golden light. 

There are ruins of heathen temples on Maui accessible to tour- 
ists, but they would probably be more interested in the evidences 
of industrial enterprise which abound on that island, in common 
with other islands of the group. The most productive cane fields 
in the world are on Maui; as also the largest sugar plantation. 
Spreckelsville plantation contains 40,000 acres, of which 12,000 
acres are always in cultivation. This plantation is cultivated by 
irrigation, and the cost of bringing the water on the land and the 
engineering difficulties overcome were very great. The mill is 
capable of manufacturing 120 tons of sugar per day. Steam- 
ploughs are employed in cultivation, and a standard guage steel 
railroad traverses the cane fields for miles, carrying cane and 
passengers. 



INTRODUCTOR Y. 



Maui has been aptly styled the Switzerland of the Hawaiian 
group. A visit to it, however, is not included in the Volcano trip, 
but it may be easily accomplished if time admits. Similarly a 
visit to Kauai, the "Garden Isle," and its famous "barking sands," 
and picturesque scenery must be undertaken separately. 



A TRIP TO HAWAII. 



A great deal has been written and published about this most 
picturesque and delightful land, but the most poetic, as it is by far 
the most enjoyable sketch of all, is from the pen of Charles Warren 
Stoddard, a well known litterateur and former resident of the Ha- 
waiian Islands, published in 1885, by the Passenger Department of 
the Oceanic Steamship Company. His description of the sea voy- 
age to Honolulu, what the tourists saw there, and how they spent 
their time on the Islands is as fresh and appropriate to-day as it 
was when it came from his facile pen. The following extracts from 
this charming brochure are reprinted for the special enjoyment of 
visitors to the Paradise of the Pacific. An accurate map is found 
in this little book which will give the tourist the geographical posi- 
tion of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and of the various islands in the 
group. 

'HOW IT HAPPENED."* 

We are seven semi-invalids, frost-bitten or sun-struck, world 
weary, full of disgust and malaria, and we resolve to join hands and 
set forth in search of life and liberty in a new land. 



4 TriJ> to Hawaii: by Charles Warren Stoddard, 1885. 




ifssa 






Co Co 

C3 CD 
C3 C3 



HO IV IT HAPPENED. 17 

Hawaii, the celebrated Sandwich Islands, being the nearest 
available corner of the Antipodes, we take round tickets for the 
Hawaiian tour, and instantly prepare to emigrate. 

Hawaii, the most written about, and the least understood little 
kingdom in the world; the prettiest, wildest, weirdest, most unique 
conglomeration of Paradise and Perdition on record, within easy 
sail of San Francisco, and having semi-monthly steamers plying to 
and fro with the regularity of a weaver's shuttle; Hawaii lures us 
with its legend, landscape and poetry, and we embark without 
delay. 



II. 

Extracts from the Log of the "Mariposa": 

"O, had we some bright little Isle of our own, 
In the blue summer Ocean, far off and alone." 

Seven of us stood in bright array; brides, benedicts and bach- 
elors; waving a fond farewell from the upper deck. We were not 
alone, for the cabins were full, but we were not making acquaint- 
ances at that moment, and so we stood in silhouette waving 
our fond farewell — in fact, seven of them, from the deck of the 
"Mariposa. " 

At 3 p. m. sharp, the gang-plank was hauled ashore, and we 
swung off into the stream. Never before in history did a ship leave 
port so promptly, but as we are warranted to arrive on time, we 
can easily pardon this very business-like beginning of a pleasure 
trip to Hawaii. 

In exactly seven days from the date of our departure, we are to 
enter the harbor of Honolulu, and at the witching hour of noon. 



1 8 A TRIP TO HAWAII. 

Meanwhile, music and mirth reign in the Social Hall; cards, ciga- 
rettes and droll stories in the smoking room, while symptoms of 
frolics and flirtations pervade the ship from stem to stern. The 
mists gathered with the first evening shades, but we were well away 
from the Coast by this time, and we felt that the voyage was pros- 
perously begun. 

For a couple of days we were reminded of the land we had left. 
An eager and a nipping air blew over us, the troubled sea was a 
measureless waste of cold suds and bluing. Sometimes a solitary 
sail flickered for an hour on the horizon, and was the subject of 
much conjecture, but most of the day was passed between the 
piano, the library, the smoking room and the constitutional spurts 
which converted the long deck of the "Mariposa" into an arena for 
the physical development of the go-as-you-please passengers. 

Then came a gradual transition : sky and sea grew brighter and 
more exquisitely blue; we were hastening towards the calms of 
Cancer. The temperate atmosphere — it is too often intemperate 
in the temperate zone — was already becoming semi-tropical. The 
great ports of the ship stood wide open to the balmy breeze. The 
decks were filled with loungers. From the Social Hall at twilight, 
floated the half melancholy refrain of a waltz. Light feet skimmed 
the deck, and between the floods of moonlight and the silver sea, 
the joyous coteries in the saloon — where a wilderness of electric 
lights glowed like loops of red-gold, and made summer sunshine, 
bright as day — the minstrelsy and the delicious languor that was 
beginning to possess us, the "Mariposa" was like a floating Casino 
drifting toward Paradise on an even keel. 

In the tropics at last! Such a flat, oily sea it was then; so 
transparent that we saw great fish swimming about ' full fathom five' 
beneath us. A monstrous shark swam lazily past, his dorsal fin 
glistening like polished steel, and now and again cutting the surface 



I/O IV IT HAPPENED. 19 

of the sea like a knife, his brace of pilot fish darting hither and 
thither like little one-legged harlequins. 

Flat-headed gonies sat high on the water, piping their querulous 
note as they tugged at something edible, a dozen of them entering 
into the domestic difficulty. One after another would desert the 
cause, run a little way over the sea to get a good start, leap heavily 
into the air, sail about for a few minutes, and then drop back upon 
the sea feet foremost and skate for a yard or two, making a white 
mark and a pleasant sound as they slid over the water. 

The exquisite Nautilus floated past us with its gauzy sail set, 
looking like a thin slice cut out of a soap bubble; the weird Anem- 
one laid its pale, sensitive petals on the tips of the waves, and 
panted in ecstacy. Down dropt the swarthy sun into his tent of 
cloud; the waves were of amber; the fervid sky was flushed; it 
seemed as if something splendid were about to happen up there in 
the heavens, and that the secret could be kept no longer. The 
purplest twilight followed, wherein the sky blossomed all over with 
the biggest, ripest, goldenest stars; such stars as hang like fruits in 
sun-fed orchards; such stars as lay a track of fire in the sea; such 
stars as rise and set over misty mountain tops and beyond low 
green capes, like young moons, every one of them. 

The past was forgotten; Hawaii seemed the one thing needful, 
and we clicked glasses that night and fell upon one another's necks 
in mutual congratulation, for it was our last night on board, and 
already we were conjuring spells of barbarous enchantment of 
snow-white reefs baptized with silver spray, girdling the Islands of 
the Blessed. Already we seemed to see the broad fan-leaves of the 
banana droop in the motionless air, and through the tropical night 
the palms aspired to heaven as we lay dreaming our sea dreams in 
the cradle of the deep. 



A TRIP TO JJ A WAIL 



III. 

"Hawaii nei — of many one thou art, 
Each scattered fragment an essential part. 

No jeweled setting is more fair than thee, 
O em'rald cluster in a beryl sea! 

Thy life is music — Fate, the notes prolong! 
Each isle a stanza and the whole a song." 

— Geo. II. Stewart. 

On the morning of the seventh day, an island rises like a small 
blue cloud out of the sea; then another, and yet another, and 
toward the last, we make our way. Green with a verdure that never 
fades; brown with the bronze tints of lava-flows that have been 
cold for centuries; a beach of dazzling whiteness, fringed with 
groves of cocoa palms; the sea like a huge emerald, with sunshine 
reflected upon the coral bottom, and brilliantly tinted fish sporting 
about us; — it is thus that we approach Honolulu at noon on the 
seventh day. 

Looking at Diamond Head from the sea, the volcanic shore 
promises nothing of the beauty that is harbored in the vernal vales 
beyond it; but the moment our good ship rounds the point of the 
famous head-land, the fairy-like coast line is suddenly revealed. 

It is a transformation scene. The mountains turn gloriously 
green. Valleys, vistas in Eden, dawn upon the eye in quick suc- 
cession. The sea rises in long voluptuous waves and fawns upon 
the reef, while within the surf the tranquil water is like a tideless 
river, where only the water-lilies are lacking; but in their stead, are 
troops of Hawaiian swimmers — veritable water nymphs — with a 
profusion of glossy locks floating about their shoulders like sea- 
weed. Of course we are all impatience, for in less than an hour we 
shall come to shore in the Kingdom where a century ago, (1778), 




A Trip to Hawaii. 



Forbes Co., Boston. 



HANAPEPA FALLS. 






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HO W IT HAPPENED. 21 

Captain Cook, the great navigator, met his fate — "As he sailed, as 
he sailed." 

There is hardly time to note well the picturesque features of the 
landscape and marine, the white sands at Waikiki, the feathery 
forest of algeroba trees that now overshadow the plains, the russet 
slopes of Old Punch Bowl — a domesticated crater just back of the 
town — and the roofs of the Capital, inundated with verdure; a 
summer city, such as the birds might build between the mountains 
and the sea. Then we turn abruptly towards the land, thread a 
narrow channel between submerged walls of coral, and are soon 
within speaking distance of friends who have come to the shore to 
give us welcome. 

By this time the sea is littered with cocoanuts, but they are curly 
headed, most of them, and clamorous, for the dime-divers of Hawaii 
doff their garments at the shortest notice and disport themselves 
amphibiously so long as there is a prospect of raising another nickel 
out of the vasty deep. 

Canoes dart upon the water as if they were living things, part 
fish, part flesh, part fowl, with one skeleton wing for an outrigger, 
a fin paddle, and a bare, brown Kanaka amidships. Fish baptize 
themselves by immersion in space, and keep leaping into the air 
like momentary inches of chain lightning; there is the perpetual 
boom of the surf, the clang of joy-bells on shore, and a possible 
shower in the refreshing cloud that is stealing down from the 
heights. "Three cheers and a tiger," — for the voyage has come 
to an end. 

The gang-plank is out again. There is a wild embrace all 
around, a brief interview with the officers of the Customs, and we 
divide ourselves among the numerous carriages awaiting patronage 
on the dock, and are at once driven to the Hawaiian Hotel, at the 
rate of two for a quarter of a dollar. 



22 A TRIP TO HAWAII. 

Here are semi-detached villas, cosy cottages for the brides and 
benedicts, and chambers with Venetian blinds and broad verandas, 
vine shaded and musical birds, for the repose of the bachelors; but 
of course we fly at once to the cupola of the establishment to take 
our reckoning. It is a little glass-house above the tree tops, and 
out of reach. We look down upon palace and hovel, and find that 
the hovel is perhaps the better ventilated of the two, and that there 
is no end of love with the dinner of herbs therein. Indeed, the 
Kingdom seems to us like an island of tranquil delights, with 
Repose written in large letters all over it. Here we have no hate- 
ful game more majestic than the mosquito; here the noblest victim 
of the chase is the agile flea; now and again, though rarely, ap- 
pears that chain of unpleasant circumstances, the centipede, or 
perchance, the devil-tailed scorpion, whose stroke is by no means 
fatal, reminds us that nothing can touch us further; and, indeed, 
but for these foreign invaders — they all came in with civilization— 
this life were almost too Edenesque. 

The marvelous temperature, which is never hot and never cold 
— 70 to 90 degrees Fah. all the year round, with a few extra showers 
to emphasize the winter months; the rich and variable color; the fra- 
grance so intense after a shower, when the ginger and the Japanese 
lily seem to distil perfume, drop by drop; the tinkle of gay guitars; 
the spray-like notes dashed from shuddering lute-strings; the irre- 
proachable languor of a race that is the incarnation of all these 
elements — this is quite as much as man wants here below (Lat. 21 
18' 23", Lon. 157° 4' 45")' anc ^ all this he has without the asking. 

What if the impertinent Mynah perch upon the roof and fill the 
attic with strange noises? What if they infest the groves at twi- 
light, and deluge the land with cascades of silvery sound? They 
are a pert bird that has rid the Kingdom of its caterpillars, and 
now they propose to luxuriate for the rest of their natural lives. 



HO IV IT HAPPENED. 23 

It was the war-whoop of a Mynah bird on the window-sill that 
called our attention to old Diamond Head, which at that moment 
was glowing like a live coal, the picture of a red-hot volcano with 
the smoke rubbed out; there was a strip of beryl sea behind it, and 
at its base a great plain fretted with the light green shade of the 
Algeroba — this was framed in the sashes on one side of the 
cupola. 

On another side, mountain peaks buried their brows in cloud 
and wept copiously, so sentimental was the hour of our communion; 
forests of the juiciest green drank these showers of tears. 

Turning again, we saw the sun-burnt hills beyond Palama, and 
the crisp cones of the small volcanoes, and more sea, and then the 
exquisite outline of the Waianae mountains, of a warm, dusty pur- 
ple, and with a film of diffused rainbows floating in the middle 
distance. 

Has not the poet sung of Waianae : 

"No sound is on the shore 

Save reef-bound breakers roar, 
Or distant boatman's song, or sea birds cry ; 

And hushed the inland bay, 

In stillness far away, 
Like phantoms rise the hills of Waianae." 

There was but one window left; it opened upon a sea stretching 
to the horizon, and mingling with the sky, a shore fringed with 
tapering masts, and crested, sentinel palms; and beneath us the 
city submerged in billowy foliage through which the wind stirred in 
gusts and eddies. 

We wondered where we were and in what season, and then, after 
a diligent study of globes and calendars, we laughed to scorn the 
amateur geographers who vainly confound us with Tahiti, or sweep 
us away toward New Guinea or the uttermost parts. 



24 A TRIP TO HA WAIL 

The fact is, following our air line due east from the hotel cupola, 
we trip on the tail of Lower California, plunge through the heart 
of Mexico into the Caribbean Sea, dash across Cuba, and are lost 
in the Atlantic; westward, we plough the solitary sea crossing the 
track of Laputa, the "Flying Island," just escape Luggnagg, and 
more is the pity, for "the Luggnaggers are a polite and generous 
people," says Gulliver; we see Hongkong, Calcutta, Mecca, and, 
beyond the Red sea. the Nile waters and the measureless sands of 
the Sahara. 

And then we hold our breath for a moment when we think 
how far above us and below us rolls the everlasting deep from pole 
to pole. 

The evening and the morning were the first day, and the first 
experience was ended — an experience bound in green and gold, the 
green of the grassy hills, and the gold of the sun-lit sea. We had 
monopolized the cupola to the despair of those guests who fly to 
it as to a haven of rest; but there was no further thought of mo- 
nopoly in our minds, for the afterglow was overwhelming, and al- 
ready from the cool corridors of the caravansary — a caravansary 
that in its architecture reminds one of Singapore — sweetly and 
silently ascended the incense of the evening meal. 



IV 



The cocoa, with its crest of spears, 

Stands sentry 'round the crescent shore, 
The algeroba bent with years, 

Keeps watch beside the lanai door. 
The cool winds fan the mango's cheek, 

The mynah flits from tree to tree, 
And zephyrs to the roses speak 

Their sweetest words at Waikiki. 



HOW IT -HAPPEXRD. 25 

Like truant children of the deep 

Escaped behind a coral wall, 
T he lisping wavelets laugh and leap, 

Nor heed old ocean's stern recall. 
All day they frolic with the sands, 

Kiss pink-lipped shells in wanton glee, 
Make windrows with their patting hands, 

And singing, sleep at Waikiki. 

O Waikiki! O scene of peace! 

O home of beauty and of dreams ! 
No haven in the Isles of Greece 

Can chord the harp to sweeter themes ; 
For houris haunt the broad lanais, 

While scented zephyrs cool the lea, 
And, looking down from sunset skies, 

The angels smile on Waikiki. 

— Rollin M. Daggett. 

We take our turns in the hammock devising plans for the day; 
there is nothing so easy in life as to swing, thus measuring off the 
hours in luxurious and rhythmical vibrations. The hammock has 
its vicissitudes; sometimes it is a pale invalid who retires into it as 
into a chrysalis, and is rocked to and fro in the wind; then the 
sympathetic and sociable gather about it, and subject the patient 
to the smoke cure— of course "by special command" — or the mint- 
julep cure, or to bits of frivolous converse thrown in between a 
matinee-reception-concert at the Princess Regent's, or a band-night 
at Emma Square. Sometimes a bewildered guest from the Colo- 
nies, or elsewhere, rolls into it and sleeps with all his might and 
main; sometimes a whole row of children trail their slim legs over 
the side of it, which is all that saves them from being compared to 
peas in a pod. 

The breeze blows fresh from the mountains, the health-giving 
trade wind; we can look right up the green glade which is the gate- 
way to Mount Tantalus and see the clouds torn to shreds across 



26 A TRIP TO HAWAII. 

the wooded highlands; we can watch the mango trees where the 
mangoes hang like bronze plummets, and the monkey-pods in 
bloom, their tops resembling terraced gardens; now and again, 
the Kamani sheds a huge leaf as big as a beefsteak, and as red as 
a raw one; but what are these splashes of color to the Ponciana 
Regia ? It is a conflagration ! 

The Bugainvilloza, a cataract of magenta blossoms that look 
like artificial leaves just out of a chemical bath, obtrudes itself at 
intervals; it is the only crude bit of color in a landscape where 
the majority of the trees are colossal boquets at one season or 
another. 

The Hibiscus is aglow with flowers of flame the whole year 
round, and the land is overrun with brilliant creepers even to the 
eaves of the hotel, where the birds quarrel and call noisily from 
dawn to dusk. 

Thus we lounge in a land where all mankind lounges a portion 
of the day; where it is not considered indelicate for a merchant 
to pose in the midst of his merchandise guiltless of coat or vest, 
for his respectability is established beyond question, and his bank 
account a patent fact; where ladies drive in morning en deshabille, 
and shop on the curb-stone without alighting from their carriages, 
and where any of them may pay an evening call unbonneted and 
unattended. 

But w r hat should we do to be saved from shameless indolence ? 
First ride or drive to the beach and bathe in a sea that rolls up 
warm from the Equator. We can go en masse in the 'bus,* or we 
can foot it if we are touched with the pedestrian craze, for three 
miles even in this climate are not too many for an appetizer. 

One may plunge for hours in the reef-girdled lagoon at Waikiki 



The primitive 'bus is now supplanted by a street railroad. 



HOW IT HAPPENED. 27 

without fear of taking a chill; there are bathing suits there, and 
canoes, and a long easy swell on which to undulate ; and there is 
the Park to ride or drive in, and the beautiful highways and the 
more beautiful byways between the Park and the Town, where 
every sense is gratified at the self-same moment. It is a delicious 
life we lead at Waikiki; those that dwell there habitually know 
the range of its possibilities; they drift tovvnward at a convenient 
hour pleading business engagements. The town, the business por- 
tion of it, runs like a mechanical piano, and if you will only give 
it time, some one or another will wind it up, and then it will play 
its pretty chorus of summer toil as gaily as if it were so many bars 
out of a light Opera; a jingle of musical coin that is kept up till 
5 p. m., when alt at once it shuts up or runs down, and life at the 
beach really begins. 

It begins with a sunset across a tropic sea, and a twilight that 
seems longer than common in this vicinity; sometimes there are 
shadowy ships in this twilight, and there are always canoes enough 
afloat to make one wish to quote the easy lines about "autumnal 
leaves" and "brooks in Valombrosa. " 

Then comes dinner, and then moonlight and music on sea and 
shore, and naked fishermen bearing aloft huge torches that gild 
their bronze brown bodies ; and bathers under the stars, and torch- 
light fishing with trusty retainers beyond the silvery surf. 

So end the evenings and the mornings of days that are much 
alike; but not for worlds would we vary them, especially such 
nights as these, when the moon is an opal and the stars 
emeralds, and the whole wonderful picture of Earth, Sea and 
Sky is done in seventeen shades of green ! 



A TRIP TO HAWAII 



V. 



"We have had enough of action, and of motion ; we 
Roll'd to starboard, roll'd to larboard, when the surge was seething free, 
Where the wallowing monster spouted his foam-fountains in the sea. 

Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind 

In the hollow Lotus-land to live and lie reclined, 

On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind." 

— Tennyson. 

Every new arrival in Honolulu goes to the Pali, at the top 
of Nuuanu Valley, as soon as the excursion can be arranged; 
even the through passengers by the Australian boats, who are 
but six hours in port, secure carriages or horses, and at once 
set forth rejoicing, for the prospect from the Pali — the preci- 
pice — is superb, and the round trip can be made for a few- 
dollars, and leisurely enough in three or four hours. 

There are carriages for the accommodation of three people ; 
wagonettes that seat a half dozen, and a big coach and four for 
larger parties, and these may be telephoned for at a moment's 
notice from the office of the Hotel. 

Some of us went on wheels and some in saddles. Cork- 
screws and sandwiches were not forgotten; nor field-glasses, the 
most indispensable of all. 

The way lies through shady avenues, between residences that 
stand in the midst of broad lawns and among foliage of the 
most brilliant description. An infinite variety of palms and 
tropical plants, with leaves of enormous circumference, diversify 
the landscape. 



HOW IT HAPPENED. 29 



NUUANU AVENUE. 

We pass the long line of villas on Nuuanu Avenue; cross the 
bridge where sudden freshets sometimes sweep like tidal waves 
from the mountains to the sea; pass trim gardens that resemble 
Japanese landscapes, by native artists, and neglected gardens that 
are like jungles of cacti and bamboo ; pass the gray walled 
cemeteries with their clusters of funereal cypresses, and the Royal 
Mausoleum where the tall Kahilis — those emblems of savage 
royalty — still stand with bedraggled feathers in memory of the 
late Princess Keelikolani, the last of the Kamehamehas ;* pass 
the Chinese tea-houses by the way side, and the kalo patches and 
plantations of bananas and the summer palace of Dowager Queen 
Emma with its stately white columns shining in the grove, and 
finally the grimy walls of a forgotten palace of an almost forgotten 
King. 

Thus having quit the town we slowly ascend the cool, green 
valley where the rapid streams gurgle in the long grass by the 
road-side, and the valley walls grow high and steep and close ; 
where the convolvulus tumbles a cataract of blossoms at our feet 
and creepers go mad and swamp a whole forest under billows of 
green; where there are leafy hammocks to swing in, and leafy 
towers to climb in, and leafy dungeons to bury one's self out of 
sight in. We drink copious draughts of delicious mountain water; 



* The "emblems of savage royalty" spoken of above long since gave place 
to others in honor of the late Queen Emma, widow of Kamehameha the Fourth; 
and these in turn were replaced by Kahilis in honor of Princess Likelike, 
mother of the present Heir Apparent, Princess Kaiulani (whose likeness 
appears in our illustrated title-page), and sister of the late King Kalakaua, in 
whose honor the "tall Kahilis" now stand at the Royal Mausoleum in the beau- 
tiful and romantic Nuuanu Cemetery. 



So A TRIP TO HAWAII. 

we rejoice mightily ; even a shower of shining rain doesn't dampen 
our ardor — no one seems to heed it here. 

Under the shadow of a great rock we camp, and then climb the 
little rise to the brow of the precipice, and look over into the 
other world. For a long time we are silent. I don't believe 
people ever talk much here; in the first place, if you open 
your mouth too wide you can't shut it again without getting 
under the lee of something — the wind blows so hard. But who 
wants to talk when he is perched on the back-bone of an island 
with fifteen hundred feet of space beneath him, and the birds 
swimming about in it liked winged fish in a transparent sea? 

And Oh, the silent land beyond the heights, with the long, long, 
winding, rocky stairway leading down into it ! No sound ever 
comes from that beautiful land, not even from the marvelously 
blue sea that noiselessly piles its breakers upon the shore like 
swan's-down. 

A great mountain wall divides this side of Oahu into about 
equal parts; it is half in sunshine and half in shade. On the one 
hand is the metropolis, on the other semi-solitude and peace. 
Peace ! a visible, tangible peace, with winding roads in it, and 
patches of bright sugar cane, and wee villages 'and palm trees 
upon the distant shore; it is picturesque in form and delicious in 
color; something to look at in awe and wonderment and to turn 
from at last with a doubt of its reality. 

Microscopic pilgrims toil up the long stairway — fugitives from 
the mysterious land down yonder; we are almost surprised to find 
that they are human, like ourselves. While some come back to us 
from the tour of this newly discovered country, others are going 
thither — passing down into the silence and the serenity of the en- 
chanting distance, and becoming as ghosts in dream-land. The 
havenward vista is glorious. The harbor as seen from the Pali 



HOW. IT HAPPENED. 31 

reminds one of the Vesuvian bay, and the golden-crested combers 
play like sheet lightning upon the surf. What a pilgrimage it is 
and who that has made it will ev.er forget it ? 



VI 



"Muse of the many twinkling feet, whose charms 
Are now extended up from legs to arms ; 
Terpsichore ! — too long misdeemed a maid — 
Reproachful term — bestowed but to upbraid- 
Henceforth in all the bronze of brightness shine, 
The least a vestal of the Virgin Nine," 

— Bvron. 



The most characteristic feature of Hawaiian life, commonly 
known as a relic of barbarism, is still to be seen in the capital of 
the Kingdom, though it is usually under cover. 

It is the Hula-Hula, the national dance, and it may be obtained 
in quantities to suit within a stone's throw of the Hotel ; it is the 
spontaneous production of the populous and prolific soil that lies 
round about that extraordinary settlement known in Honolulu as 
the Mosquito Fleet. 

The origin of the name which will long be associated with a 
very central, yet very secret quarter of Honolulu is this: In the 
beginning was the Kalo-patch — Kalo is pronounced as if it were 
spelled tare ; nothing can be prettier than a well kept Kalo-patch; 
a lake full of deflowered calla-lilies might resemble it; when seen 
from a little distance, and especially from a height, a disk of 
burnished silver, across which green enameled arrow-headed leaves 
in high relief are set in lozenge pattern, could not be more at- 
tractive; but the trail of the mosquito is over them all. 



32 A TRIP TO HAWAII. 

There was a time when the narrow paths that ran between the 
Kalo-patches in the quarter of which I write, led from one grass 
house to another; grass houses, like mushrooms, cropped up al- 
most anywhere, but especially beside still waters, and so it came 
to pass that a little village, a toy Venice, sat watching its reflection 
in the unruffled like waters of the Kalo-patches and the voice of 
the multitudinous mosquito in the vicinity was like a chorus of buzz 
saws; the place was known to Jack-a-shore as the Mosquito Fleet, 
and therein his feet went astray with alacrity. 

The Kalo was long since pulled and beaten and eaten in fistsfull 
of succulent poi ; the patches have been filled in and sodded over, 
and the grass houses have given place to miserable wooden 
shanties, but the original crookedness of the lane that led to 
destruction is preserved. 

We made our accidental entrance on one occasion, and 
traversed what seemed to be a cul-de-sac; at the last moment we 
were shifted as if by magic into a passage hardly broader than our 
shoulders, and but twenty paces long ; all at once a diminutive 
village sprung up about us; we felt like discoverers and wandered 
jubilantly about among houses with strips of gardens nestling 
between them, and all of these fitted together like the bits of a 
Chinese puzzle. Now it was quite impossible to be certain of 
anything, for the lane, which seemed without beginning and with- 
out end, turned unexpected corners with bewildering frequency, 
and, though we succeeded in threading the perilous mazes, the 
wonder was that we didn't stumble into windows that unexpectedly 
opened upon us, and through doors that aptly blocked the way. 
We met no one in that narrow path ; had we done so, one or the 
other must needs have backed out, or vaulted the fence beyond 
which it were not seemly to penetrate. 



HOW IT HAPPENED. i4 

There was music:, as there always is music where two 01 tnreo 
natives are gathered together ; a chant, half nasal, half guttural, 
such as the mud wasp makes in his cell, relieved by the boom 
of the agitated calabash, and the clang of the heavy feet 
upon the floor. 

It was the Hula-Kui, the dance of the athletes, immensely 
popular to-day, but in reality the revival of a very ancient dance, 
in which the participants rival one another in vigorous posturing 
and graceful and expressive gesticulation. 



The veritable Hula-Hula was to follow. There was a murmur 
of admiration as a band of beautiful giris, covered with wreaths 
of flowers and vines, entered and seated themselves before us. 
While the musicians beat an introductory overture on the tom- 
toms, the dancers proceeded to bind shawls or scarfs about their 
waists turban-fashion. They sat in a line facing us, elbow to 
elbow. Their upper garments were of the airiest description ; 
their bosoms were scarcely hidden by the necklace of jasmine 
that rested upon them. 

Then the master of the ceremonies, who sat, gray-headed and 
wrinkled, at one end of the room, threw back his head and uttered 
a long, wild and shrill guttural — a kind of invocation to the 
goddess of the dance. When this clarion cry had ended, the 
dance began, all joining in it with wonderful rhythm, the body 
swaying slowly backward and forward, to left and right; the arms 
tossing, or rather waving in the air above the head ; now beckon- 
ing some spirit of light, so tender and seductive were the emotions 
of the dancers, so graceful and free the movements of the wrists ; 
and anon, with violence and fear they seemed to repulse a host of 
devils that hovered- invisibly about them. 



34 A TRIP TO HAWAII. 

The spectators watched and listened breathlessly, fascinated, by 
the terrible wildness of the song, and the monotonous thrumming 
of the accompaniment. Presently the excitement increased ; 
swifter and more wildly the bare arms beat the air, embracing as 
it were, the airy forms that haunted the dancers who now rose to 
their knees and with astonishing agility, caused the clumsy 
draperies about their loins to quiver with an undulatory motion, 
increasing or decreasing in violence, according to the sentiment 
of the song, and the enthusiasm of the spectators. 

The room wnirled with the reeling dancers, who seemed each 
encircled with a living serpent in the act of swallowing big lumps 
of something from his throat clea.n to the tip of his tail, i nd these 
convulsions continued till the hysterical dancers staggered and fell 
to the floor, overcome by unutterable fatigue. 

Meanwhile, windows and doors were packed full of strange, 
wild faces, and the frequent police gently soothed the clamoring 
populace without, who, having eyes saw not — which is probably 
the acme of aggravation. 



VII. 



"O hundred shores of happy clime, 

How swiftly steam'd ye by the bark ! 
At times the whole sea burned, at times 
With wakes of fire we tore the dark ; 
At times a carven craft would shoot 
From havens hid in fairy bowers, 
With naked limbs and flowers and fruit, 
But we nor paused for fruit nor flowers." 

— Tennyson. 

Every Tuesday, at 5 p. m., a steamer leaves Honolulu for the 

windward islands of the group, chief of which is Hawaii, with its 

fountain of everlasting fire. 



HO IV IT HAPPENED. 35 

The once famous craft, the Like Like, has given place to a 
more commodious steamer, the Kinau. On the Like Like, 
passengers who preferred balmy sea-breezes to the air of the 
cabin, were wont to camp out on deck, where the mirth and 
minstrelsy of the Hawaiians made night a novelty. The Kinau 
has staterooms for the accommodation of those who love privacy, 
and moreover, being a fast boat, she has shortened the short trip 
to Hawaii by some hours ; it can be made easily in four 
and twenty. 

In the twilight, after leaving Honolulu, we are in the 
middle sea between two islands that float like rosy clouds on 
the horizon. 

About 9 p. m., we pass Molokai, the mysterious land 
whither are banished the unfortunate lepers. Then there is 
another channel, and beyond it three islands, Maui, Lanai and 
Kahoolaui ; at the former we touch, before midnight, dropping 
anchor off Lahaina. Lahaina is a little slice of civilization 
beached on the shore of barbarism ; a charming, drowsy and 
dreamy village with one broad street ; a street with but one 
side to it, for the sea laps over the sloping sands on its lower 
edge, and the sun sets right in the face of the citizens just as 
they are going to supper. 

It is true that there are two or three long and narrow lanes 
overhung with a green roof of leaves, and there are summer 
houses with hammocks pitched close upon the white edge of the 
shore — but all this we see as through a glass, darkly, for the 
Kinau tarries but an hour in the roadstead and the moon- 
light, when we trip anchor and hasten on our voyage. 

This souvenir of one of the prettiest and most tropical 
corners in the Kingdom, once the capital of the Kingdom 



3 6 A TRIP TO HAWAII. 

and the favorite of the Kamehamehas, we bring away with 
us : 

LAHAINA. 

Where the wave tumbles ; 
Where the reef rumbles ; 
Where the sea sweeps 

Under bending palm branches, 
Sliding its snow-white 

And swift avalanches : 
Where the sails pass 
O'er an ocean of glass, 

Or trail their dull anchors 
Down in the sea-grass. 

Where the hills smoulder ; 
Where the plains smoke ; 
Where the peaks shoulder 

The clouds like a yoke ; 
Where the dear isle 
Has a charm to beguile, 

As she lies in the lap 
Of the seas that enfold her. 
Where shadows falter ; 
Where the mist hovers 
Like steam that covers 
Some ancient altar. 

Where the sky rests 
On deep wooded crests ; 

Where the clouds lag : 
Where the sun floats 
His glittering moats, 
Swimming the rainbows 

That girdle the crag. 

Where the new comer 
In deathless summer 

Dreams away troubles ; 
Where the grape blossoms 

And blows its sweet bubbles ; 



HOW IT HAPPENED. 37 

Where the goats cry 

From the hill side corral ; 
Where the fish leaps 

In the weedy canal — 
In the shallow lagoon 

With its waters forsaken ; 
Where the dawn struggles 

With night for an hour, 
Then breaks like a tropical 

Bird from its bower. 

Where from the long leaves 

The fresh dew is shaken ; 
Where the wind sleeps 

And where the birds waken ! 

An hour later we pause at Maalaea, and feel the spray and 
the sand blown from oft* the windy isthmus of Maui. At dawn, we 
reach Makena, the port of that paradise in mid-air, Ulupalakua, — 
"Ripe bread-fruit for the gods" — two-thousand feet above us; then 
another channel, the last, is crossed, and early in the day we hug 
the shores of Hawaii, running in and out, dropping passengers 
and freight and live stock — the latter are dropped into the sea — 
and so we are afforded an agreeable variety in a voyage which is 
too brief to be monotonous. The weather-side of the giant 
island is a series of magnificent precipices, that in many cases 
overhang the sea, and until we reach Hilo, our port of destina- 
tion, we cannot withdraw from the splendid coastline our fasci- 
nated gaze. 

Rich and radiant valleys are folded in between those verdant 
heights. Between Hilo and the valley of Waipio, a distance of 
less than sixty miles, there are ninety-two ravines, each with its 
torrent rushing downward to the sea, many of them with waterfalls, 
and one of these waterfalls, in the Waipio valley, makes a sheer 
leap of r.700 feet from the clouds into a forest cf bread-fruit trees. 



38 A TRIP TO HAWAII. 

Most of the seaward precipices are from 1,000 to 1,500 feet in 
height, and from all of these, after every shower, descend innu- 
merable streams ; it is a veritable realization of the Lotus- 
eaters' dream : 

" In the afternoon they came unto a land, 
In which it seemed always afternoon. 
All round the coast the languid air did swoon, 
Breathing like one that hath a weary dream. 
Full faced above the valley stood the moon, 
And like a downward smoke, the slender stream 
Along the cliff to fall, and pause, and fall did seem. 

A land of streams! Some like a downward smoke, 

Slow-dropping veils of thinnest lawn, did go ; 

And some through wavering lights and shadows broke, 

Rolling a slumberous sheet of foam below. 

They saw the gleaming river seaward flow 

From the inner land ; far off, three mountain tops, 

Three silent pinnacles of aged snow, 

Stood sunset flushed ; and dewed with showery drops, 

Up clomb the shadowy palm above the woven copse. " 

— Tennvson. 



HOW IT HAPPENED, 39 



VIII. 

'See how the tall palms lift their locks 
From mountain clefts — what vales, 
Basking beneath the noontide sun, 
That high and hotly sails ! 

Yet all about the breezy shore, 
Unheedful of the glow, 
Look how the children of the South 
Are passing to and fro ! 

What noble forms ! What fairy place ! 
Cast anchor in this cove, 
Push out the boat, for in this land 
A little we must rove !" 

— William Howitt. 



Hilo is a cluster of summer houses hidden among palms and 
bread-fruit trees, where the rain is said to fall perpetually ; per- 
haps it is for this reason that Hilo is the most tropical in ap- 
pearance, as it is certainly the most beautiful of Hawaiian 
hamlets. 

What a shore it has ! A crescent with a row of houses facing it, 
where the tenants seem to have little else to do than 

" To watch the crisping ripples on the beach, 
The tender curving lines of creamy spray." 

We find other occupation, for there are delightful drives in 
the vicinity ; to Cocoa-nut Island, to the Rainbow Waterfalls, to 
the neighboring heights where the best view of the coast is ob- 
tained — and a marvelous view it is ; and also to the last lava- 
flow, a spectacle of surpassing interest. 



4 o A TRIP TO HA WAIL 

No where e'se in the world are there such lava fields, so easily 
approached, so varied, so extensive. In 1880, a volcanic wound 
was opened in the flank of Mauna Loa, and for nine months a 
river of red-hot lava flowed steadily toward the sea. Most of the 
time one might have walked in front of it, its progress was so 
slow. About the camps of visitors the air quivered with the heat 
of the all-devouring flood, and the glare of burning forests through 
which it ploughed, made night perpetual day. 

At that time, Hilo was in imminent danger, and the inhabitants 
were preparing for flight, when the flow ceased almost upon the 
edge of the town. The more superstitious natives believe that 
Hilo was spared through the intercession or by the command of 
the late Princess Keelikolani, who, with her people, made a pil- 
grimage to the lava stream, and, having paid a tribute of propitia- 
tory offerings to Pele, the Goddess of the Volcano, the stream was 
suddenly stayed after having flowed a distance of nearly fifty 
miles ; a single house was destroyed and no lives were lost, but 
the iron waves of that fearful flood remain to mark its 
course forever. 

Hilo is a place of rest ; there are excellent accommodations 
for those who wish to tarry in a spot where the inhabitants lead 
a kind of dream-life, and where the chief event of the week is 
the arrival of the steamer from Honolulu with a budget of news 
from the outer world. 



J10W IT HAPPENED. 4 l 



IX 



" We'll wander on through wood and field, 
We'll sit beneath the vine ; 
We'll drink the limpid cocoa-milk, 
And pluck the native pine. 

The bread-fruit and cassava-root, 
And many a glowing berry, 
Shall be our feast ; for here, at least, 
Why should we not be merry !" 

Win. Hoivitt. 

It is a fact, that the thirty mile horse-back ride from Hilo to 
the crater of Kilauea is not as comfortable as it might be under 
other circumstances ; that the trail is not the best in the world, 
nor the horses either ; and that it rains at intervals on the road; 
but water-proofs are obtainable, one may lodge at a half-way 
house, and thus break the journey into two easy stages, and, as 
for the object of the pilgrimage, does it not well repay one for 
some little privation and fatigue?*" 

We stop over at the Half-way House for the sake of an 
experience; it is not on every day that one finds an excuse for 
looking into the inner life of the gentle Hawaiian, so we order 
supper, and secretly take notes during the preparation thereof. 

In turning over my journals, I find the record of a night spent 
under a grass roof, and I give it as the faithful picture of an 
episode I would not willingly forget. 



* This was in 1885 ; there is now a well made carriage road the greater part 
of the way, between Hilo and Volcano House at Kilauea. There is also 
excellent hotel accommodation at the Volcano. 



42 A TRIP TO HAWAII. 

It is the close of day, and of a long day in a hard saddle ; I 
am literally famishing, and my mule is already up to his ears in 
water cress ; but I have ridden, and he has carried me — How just, 
O Mother Nature, are thy judgments ! 

With the superb poses of a trained athlete, my native swings 
a fowl by the neck, and very shortly it is plucked and potted, 
together with certain vegetables of the proper affinities. Then 
he swathes a fish in succulent leaves, and buries it in hot ashes ; 
and then he smokes his peace-pipe. Pipe no sooner lighted, than 
mouths mysteriously gather— five, ten, a dozen of them, magically 
assemble at the smell of smoke, and take their turn at the curled 
shell, with a hollow stalk for a mouth-piece. 

Dinner at last. O, fish, fruit, and fowl on a mat, on a floor, 
in a grass hut at evening ! How excellent are these — Amen. 

Night ; supper over ; some one twanging upon a stringed 
instrument of rude native origin. Gossip lags, but darkness 
and silence and a cigarette are agreeable substitutes. 

My native rises haughtily, and lights a lamp that looks very 
like a diminutive coffee pot with a great flame in the nose of it; 
he hangs it against a beam, already blackened with smoke, to the 
peak of the roof. Again, the peace-pipe sweeps the home circle, 
and is passed out to the mouths of the neighborhood. 

The spirit of repose descends upon us; one by one my dusky 
fellows roll themselves into mummy-like bundles, and lie in a 
solemn row along the side of the room, sleeping. I, also, will 
sleep ; a great bark-cloth (kapa) that rattles as if it had received 
seven starchings, is all mine for a covering. I lie with my eyes 
to the roof, and count the beams that look like an arbor. What 



HO W IT HA PPENED. 43 

is it I see as large as my thumb, cased in brown armor ? A 
cockroach ! a melancholy procession of cockroaches passing from 
one side of the hut, over the roof, with their backs downward, and 
descending on the other side by the beams— a hundred of them, or 
perhaps a thousand — "The cry is 'still they come!' " Ha! put out 
the coffee pot, for these sights are horrible. 

Now I will sleep with my face under the kapa, and in an 
atmosphere of cocoa-nut oil, relieved at intervals by the sulphurous 
spurt of a match ; I do sleep, and find it in spite of every thing 
highly refreshing. 



44 A TRIP TO HAWAII. 



X 



' An ocean planet, rounded by a glory, 
The billowy glory of the great Pacific, 
Withdrawn in spheres remote of rolling blue. 

An island, central, with inferior groupings, 
Like Jupiter, in the cerulean distance, 
Magnificent among his circling moons. 



The heavy mango droops, the slim palm towers, 
By inter-tropical shores ; gleam silver summits 
(Through wind-clouds) Arctic with eternal frost. 

Crowned with the vast white dome of Mauna Loa, 
Escarpments rich with the pandanus, ravines, 
Cascades and rainbows, form thy globular shell. 

A hollow globe ; beneath the snow, the verdure, 
The ambient ocean, live, primordial fires, 
Which have created, dwell — and may destroy. 



Hush ! hence the theme ! 'Tis torrid noon with freshness 
On lake and waterfall, soft vowels and laughter 
From brown amphibious girls in Eden's guise. 

And as I gaze and write, glorious Hawaii ! 
I see no terror in thy soaring beauty, 
Thy sky of lazuli and sapphire sea." 

— William Gibson. 

The Volcano House is situated upon the brink of the crater 
of Kilauea, 4,440 feet above sea level. The climate at that 
altitude is very cool and bracing ; the accommodations all that 
can be expected or desired. Even if one were not to descend 



HOW IT HAPPENED. 45 

into the crater, 900 feet below, he would still be well repaid for 
the fatigue of his journey, by the glimpse of that lake of fire as 
seen from the Volcano House at night. 

A zig-zag trail about three-quarters of a mile in length, leads from 
the lip of the crater to the lava beds below. A guide is with us, 
who, at intervals, strikes the lava with his staff, sounding it as one 
sounds ice to test its safety, and the lava field looks not unlike an 
ice field thickly powdered with coal dust. 

Where we now pass was once a seething sea of fire ; it is a 
thick crust of congealed lava that supports us, and beneath it is 
imprisoned the molten mass which at times spouts forth its terrific 
fountains of fire ; in the eruption of 1880, lava streams were 
jetted hundreds of feet into the air. 

All the possible dangers attending the descent into Kilauea 
are forgotten in the intoxicating excitement that possesses us. 
The crevasses we leap ; the tunnels and blow-holes, through which 
we look into fiery furnaces seven times heated ; the vapors that at 
intervals envelop us : the hot brink of the lake of living lava, 
where waves of liquid fire dash upon the shore, and the thin edges 
of the waves are spun into threads finer than finest silk, and are 
then wafted away in the breeze ; the rumblings and subterraneous 
commotions that at times seem to threaten total annihilation — all 
these have no terrors for us while we are in the midst of them. 
But at night, when the canopy of vapor, that always hangs above 
that inferno, is like a cloud on fire, and perpetual lightnings play 
upon the surface of the burning lake, we shudder with thinking of 
the dangers we have passed, and wonder that we were not 
consumed when we were in the midst of these merciless engines 
of destruction. 

The great crater of Kilauea is nine miles in circumference; in 



46 A TRIP TO HAWAII. 

one corner of it is Halemaumau — the house of everlasting fire. 
No where else within the knowledge of mankind is there a living 
crater to be compared with it. Vesuvius and ^Etna are certainly 
unworthy. Moreover, there is no crater which can be entered, by 
reason of its peculiar conformation, and explored with ease and 
comparative safety save Kilauea alone. There have been a few 
narrow escapes, but no accidents, and it is needless to add that no 
description can give any one an adequate idea of the incomparable 
splendor of the scene. 

The return from Kilauea may be made through other portions 
of Hawaii, by the steamer Planter and others ; an itinerary is 
not practicable' at this moment, but as, by reason of its infinite 
variety of scenery and climate, the Hawaiian Group is destined to 
become one of the most popular resorts of the tourist, new 
ways will be opened, and new prospects brought within the 
reach of all. 

The Hawaiian Islands have been called the gems of the 
Pacific, and it is true, that those who have once visited 
them, bring away a memory as flattering as it is unfading, 
of the most romantic island Kingdom in the world, a solitary 
group in a serene sea, where the summer is fragrant and 
perpetual. 

"How very fair they must have seemed, 
When first they darkened on the deep ! 
Like all the wandering seaman dreamed, 
When land rose lovely on his sleep. 

How many dreams they turned to truth, 
When first they met the sailor's eye ? 
Green with the sweet earth's southern youth, 
And azure with her southern sky. 

— Z. E. L. 



AUSTRALIA, NEW £EAI,AND 



AND THE 



ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC! 

Reached only by the Splendid Steamships of the Oceanic Steamship Co. 

A WORLD OF WONDER, 
SCENIC BEAUTY AND RESTFUL QUIET. 

rlacaaii, the beautiful — perpetual Spring, sunshine, birds and 
flowers all the year. 

Samoa, so aptly and attractively described by Robt. Louis 
Stevenson in his writings in the Century Magazine. 

Jieixx Zealand, the Switzerland of the Southern Hemisphere 
— its Southern Alps, covered with snow the year round, smiling 
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of the European. All this and more ! 

THE OCEANIC S. S. CO. OFFER THE FOLLOWING 
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San praneisco to Honolulu and retur-n, a trip to the 
Volcano of Kilauea, two weeks' hotel fare in Honolulu, a run to 
Pearl River and Ewa Plantation, involving in all an absence of 
five weeks from San Francisco — $225.00. 

R trip around the uuorld, from any point in the United 
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For further information and descriptive matter, write to 

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General Agents Oceanic Steamship Co. 

327 Market Street, San Francisco. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 921 325 8 




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